U.S. F-22 stealth fighter pilot taunted Iranian F-4 Phantom combat planes

[ssethii]

Earlier this year, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little, said that an IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) F-4 Phantom combat plane attempted to intercept a U.S. MQ-1 drone flying in international airspace off Iran. As we reported back then, one of the two F-4 Phantom jets came to about 16 miles from the UAV but broke off pursuit after they were broadcast a warning message by two American planes escorting the Predator. The episode happened in March 2013, few months after a two Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes operated by the Pasdaran (informal name of the IRGC – the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution) attempted to shoot down an American MQ-1 flying a routine surveillance flight in international airspace some 16 miles off Iran, the interception of the unmanned aircraft failed. After this attempted interception the Pentagon decided to escort the drones involved in ISR (intelligence surveillance reconnaissance) missions with fighter jets (either F-18 Hornets with the CVW 9 embarked on the USS John C. Stennis whose Carrier Strike Group is currently in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility or F-22 Raptors like those deployed to Al Dhafra in the UAE. New details about the episode were recently disclosed by Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh who on Sept. 17 not only confirmed that the fighter jets providing HVAAE (High Value Air Asset Escort) were F-22 stealth fighters but also said that: “He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home’”

If the episode went exactly as Welsh described it, it was something more similar to Maverick’s close encouter with Russian Mig-28s in Top Gun movie than a standard interception.

It would be interesting to know how the Raptor managed to remain stealth (did they use their radar? were they vectored by an AWACS? etc.) and why it was not the E-2 most probably providing Airborne Early Warning in the area to broadcast the message to persuade the F-4 to pursuit the drone before the Iranian Phantoms and the U.S. Raptors got too close in a potentially dangerous and tense situation? Anyway the U.S. pilot achieved to scare the Iranian pilots off and save the drone. A happy ending worthy of an action movie.

 

[Side-Winder]

OMG..just read the lines

“He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home’”

 

[root]

Not just with Iranian Pilots..they could do it to any country due to stealth.

 

[ssethii]

Not just with Iranian Pilots..they could do it to any country due to stealth.

How is so. Can you shed some light on the technical perspective.

 

[GR!FF!N]

OMG..just read the lines

“He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home’”

technically not possible..looks like a fanboy stuff..even Stealthy fighters like F-22 can be detected from 30 km back by most of the radars..how come they went under the wing of the iranian aircrafts without knowing??no without disabling their radar(as well as their eyes) completely..

 

[Surenas]

Sounds bullcrap to me. Like an earlier article which stated that an US FA-18 fighter had taunted an Iranian radar station (who threatened to send a interceptor fighter) by saying: ''Send 'em up, I'll wait!''.

I'll guess US military fanboys need these hollywood fairytales in order to keep their morale and coolness high.

I'm talking about this article:

Marine FA-18 Pilot Taunts Iran Air Traffic Control | PolitiCollision

 

[bangstick]

Sounds like baloney to me.

 

[hkdas]

F-4 dose't have any powerful radar to detect f-22. f-22 pilot knows about the weakness of f-4. there is three generation gap b/w f-4 and f22.

 

[gambit]

technically not possible..looks like a fanboy stuff..even Stealthy fighters like F-22 can be detected from 30 km back by most of the radars..how come they went under the wing of the iranian aircrafts without knowing??no without disabling their radar(as well as their eyes) completely..

Technically very possible. No fighter have active aft radars and certainly not the old F-4, unless we are talking about 'Iranian physics' here.

Do not confuse the passive radar WARNING receiver set with active radar transmission. RWR is passive, meaning its antenna merely 'listens' for any transmission, and if it is not sophisticated enough to discern LPI-ed transmission, which is most likely what happened, the Iranian pilot was lucky we are not at war. He would have been dead without knowing his attacker.

 

[bornmoron]

 

[gambit]

Sounds bullcrap to me.

More technically sound than Iran 'hacked' into a real time encrypted two-way satellite transmission to land a US drone.

Like an earlier article which stated that an US FA-18 fighter had taunted an Iranian radar station (who threatened to send a interceptor fighter) by saying: ''Send 'em up, I'll wait!''.

I'll guess US military fanboys need these hollywood fairytales in order to keep their morale and coolness high.

I'm talking about this article:

Marine FA-18 Pilot Taunts Iran Air Traffic Control | PolitiCollision

So what if that story may not be true? Iran 'hacking' into a US drone is even more improbable and the product of the Iranian version of Hollywood to keep the Iranian military morale high.

 

[neehar]

sounds b.s to me.first if they intend to escort the drone with 2 planes whats the purpose of the drones??planes can themselves do the task.second f22 is an expensive plane operational wise and that to two are sent to escort it against a country like iran!! which is pretty much b.s.third stealth doesnt mean invisible.it means for most of the frequencies for most of the altitudes at most of the angles and up to a certain range ,most of the parts of the plane remain largely undetected.so the above story which says that they went underbelly to check weapons is agains b.s.

 

[Surenas]

So what if that story may not be true? Iran 'hacking' into a US drone is even more improbable and the product of the Iranian version of Hollywood to keep the Iranian military morale high.

Still whining about the fact that Iran has managed to capture a US drone intact? And not once, but many times. Hacking is the most logical explanation. Unlike these Tom Clancy stories about the mighty US air force taunting Iranian pilots.

 

[Luftwaffe]

Forget everything now think US has come that low that it has to protect a UAV with an escort by F-22 and F-18, the stupidity.

 

[Esc8781]

More technically sound than Iran 'hacked' into a real time encrypted two-way satellite transmission to land a US drone.


So what if that story may not be true? Iran 'hacking' into a US drone is even more improbable and the product of the Iranian version of Hollywood to keep the Iranian military morale high.

Gambit, an Mq-9 sensor operator said that everyone at Creech laughed at the fact that people believed that Iran 'hacked' the Sentinel.